NJ finds 6,000+ non-citizens added to voter rolls by software error

Gov. Mikie Sherrill says a software glitch put over 6,000 non-citizens on New Jersey rolls, with fewer than 400 casting ballots since 2023.

Official announcement

Sherrill, a Democrat who took office as New Jersey’s governor, disclosed the problem in public remarks reported by POLITICO on July 21, 2026. According to that report, the governor said more than 6,000 non-citizens were placed on the rolls because of a software malfunction rather than intentional registration. POLITICO reported that she also said fewer than 400 of those individuals cast ballots in various elections since 2023. Other accounts circulating on X and in follow-on coverage described the figure in similar terms, generally as more than 6,000 registrations and fewer than 400 ballots cast over that period.

How the error was described

Coverage attributed the misregistrations to a software failure in state systems used in connection with voter registration, with some secondary reports pointing to New Jersey’s motor vehicle processes as the point of origin. Those details have been reported as part of the official explanation and have not been independently verified in full in open secondary summaries. Under federal and New Jersey law, only U.S. citizens may vote in federal and state elections. Officials have framed the episode as an administrative and technology failure that wrongly enrolled people who were not eligible, rather than as a finding that non-citizens routinely registered themselves.

Ballots cast and scope of voting

According to Sherrill’s account as reported by POLITICO, the number of people from the affected group who cast ballots since 2023 was under 400. That figure covers multiple elections over several years and is substantially smaller than the total number of erroneous registrations, based on the governor’s reported statements. Available summaries do not specify which races those ballots involved, how many were counted, or whether any were later challenged or removed. Outlets have also not, in the primary POLITICO summary, detailed how many of the more than 6,000 names remain on the rolls versus how many have already been purged or flagged.

Response and next steps

Sherrill’s disclosure has drawn widespread attention on X and in national political coverage, with POLITICO among the first major outlets to report the governor’s figures. State officials have indicated that the error is being corrected and that ineligible names are being removed from the rolls, according to secondary reporting that tracks the announcement. Specific timelines for a full cleanup, any criminal or civil referrals, and the technical root cause of the software failure were not fully detailed in the initial POLITICO account. Election administrators in New Jersey typically maintain voter lists at the county level under state guidance, so further county-by-county tallies may emerge as the review continues.

Non-citizen voting is illegal under U.S. law. The figures cited here—more than 6,000 non-citizens added by error and fewer than 400 ballots cast since 2023—come from Sherrill’s statements as reported by POLITICO and should be treated as official claims pending fuller documentation from state election authorities.